Sherdog: Mike, you were a late replacement who was given two week's notice to fight a world class fighter in Babalu. And now you've had one week's notice to fight Mark Epstein for the Cage Rage title. How does that feel?
Mike: It feels good! I'm looking forward to it. I think this sort of thing suits me as a person - I'm always in training anyway, and I don't like having too long to stew over things. I don't care anyway - 6 weeks to prepare, 6 days to prepare - I'll fight anyone.
Sherdog: Have you seen Mark fight before?
Mike: We have one of his fights on video - the fight against Glen Appleby at the last Cage Rage. He won and I guess it was impressive, but I didn't think that his opponent was up to much. Glen looked kind of scared. As for Mark, well he just didn't show much technique - he was always looking for the big right hand, or for the ground and pound. And that's what I've trained for, because obviously the ground and pound is Babalu's game too. I trained for it and I'm just going to go out there and meet him at his own game.
Sherdog: So are you trying to tell me that Mark is a poor man's Babalu?
Mike: Yes.
Sherdog: Sorry, but I have to ask. Your nickname is "The Count". This is a reference to the fact that you're descended from the Polish aristocracy?
Mike: That's right.
Sherdog: Okay. So tell me - what is Mike Bisping's game?
Mike: Well I've got two pro figts, and both are wins by KO. I won my last fight in 38 seconds so obviously I'm confident in my stand-up. But that's just it - everyone seems to think that that's all I've got, but I've actually got an excellent ground game to go with it. If people want to think of me as just a stand-up striker then they can, but they're in for a surprise.
Sherdog: How will it go down tomorrow?
Mike: Well, I think we're both here to bang, so we'll bang. But look at him, he's a thick lad, experienced, so we'll have to wait and see.
Sherdog: Prediction?
Mike: Oh, it's in the bag. I'm taking the title back to Davies MMA.
Sherdog: Tell me more about that team - I've not heard much about them.
Mike: Well my head coach is Paul Lloyd Davies and he's great. We're based up in Nottingham and it's he who has co-responsibility for the KSBO shows. No only is Paul a great coach, but he offers a complete coaching experiece - training, diet, nutrition. I'm the first fighter to really come out of the Davies MMA stable, but there will be more.
Sherdog: Mike, how were you called up to fight Babalu? Tell me what happenned.
Mike: Well that's a funny story. I knew that Andy and Dave (Gear and O'Donnell, promoters of Cage Rage) were interested in me and I was ready to fight, so we called them up to ask if we could fight in one of the upcoming shows. It just so happenned that Cyrille had pulled out earlier that day, so they asked if we wanted to fight Babalu. I just said yes and there it was. And then a week later they called and said 'Actually, you're fighting Epstein'. And I said 'Okay'. Great.
Sherdog: And here we are.
Mike: Yeah!
Sherdog: Well I wish you all the best tomorrow. Good luck.